National Building Museum

Today we took the metro into town and walked to the National Building Museum.  We've heard great things about this museum and how great it is for kids.  We got off the metro at Metro Center and walked to find some coffee for Darren.  We ended up getting out right near Chinatown so we stopped by the gate.

After getting some coffee (and other treats) we walked to the Building Museum.  It was a pretty building.

And it was beautiful inside.

Except for one flaw, the building was being used for the Cherry Blossom 10 mile race pick up location.  And in the main hall they had a big runners exhibition, so there were tons of people there who weren't there to see the museum.

We decided to stay and walked through the exhibits and you know i have to say they were pretty sparse.  Most of the exhibits were lots of reading and pictures but we found a couple of hands on things like this puzzle.

The big draw for the museum is the Building Zone.  Well the problem for my kids is it is designed for kids under 6.  So we didn't get in there.  We did go into the exhibit called Play Work Build.  They had all kinds of building toys on display and in the center of the room they had some building toys.  The boys had fun with these foam lego type toys.  (I enjoyed the light table and how great you could get pictures there.)

They also had bigger versions in the next room, which was really cool and had holes in the walls where you could build up the walls too.  Evan really enjoyed this room, even though there was this little boy who kept stealing his building blocks and his parents both stood there with the phones on Facebook not paying any attention.  Luckily Evan is pretty easy going and didn't let it bother him as much as it bugged me.  (Yes I hate those parents who don't mind their children.)

Darren and Ian enjoyed the large foam blocks too but in a different way.  (You can see Evan in the background, he is eyeing all the Lego buildings in the display case.)

Outside on the walk to the Hard Rock Cafe, we found this pretty tree outside a firehouse.

Spring Pics

My boys have spring pictures at school today.  I bought them pretty spring colored shirts for their pictures.  They looked so handsome.

Roller Skating

One of the community centers near our house has a big gym on on Saturday evenings during the winter they host roller skating nights.  We got invited by some friends and Evan really enjoyed it.

These are pictures from last weekend when I took him.  He went again last night with his buddy Aidan for the last skate night of the season.

Mulch Madness is Over

Ian's boy scout troop sells mulch as their big fundraiser at the beginning of the year.  Ian sold to friends and neighbors and did pretty good for his first year.  It sounds like total, the troop sold 3800 bags of mulch.  Today they went out and delivered it.  They spent nine hours in the pouring rain delivering mulch to people in the area.

Here are my guys after they got done with our mulch.

Whittling Chip

The Cub Scouts worked on learning knife safety tonight.  After they were done, they whittled some sticks for roasting marshmallows.

Army Wives Power Walk

I went for a hike from Dupont Circle to the National Cathedral, winding though the streets to see the different Embassies along the way.  One of the ladies with the group, her husband worked at the Belgium Embassy and we actually got to come in and check it out.  Her husband even made us coffee with fine china.  It was a lot of fun and ended with lunch at 2 Amys.

Newseum Field Trip

Evan's 3rd grade class went on a field trip to the Newseum.  Darren went with them and brought me back a few photos.

While Ian hiked a long way..

Evan and I went on a shorter hike over to see the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Sometimes you just have to say it is done.

I hate it when you get an idea in my head on how my layout should look and it doesn't quite turn out that way.  I started off with this sketch from Pretty Little Studio.  I liked the sketch.  I like my picture, I actually thought about doing it more from a paparazzi and NO DON'T TAKE MY PICTURE MOM.  But really 25 years down the line would I really remember what actually happened?  Actually Evan really likes having his pictures taken and wanted to show me his sticky fingers from eating his cupcake at Ian's end of the season soccer party.  That's where the camera paper came from and then I decided, I really don't like it but it was already there and eyelets were set.

But it is done, so I'm moving on.  Maybe one day I'll try the sketch again.

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Little Scrapping

Based on some picture art from Pretty Little Studio. I thought it looked like the background was cut up and re-pieced back together. Then I stamped my title with some large letters.

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Got to get back on the wagon

or at least back on my feet.  I've kind of let this really cold winter turn me into a bear in hibernation.  I would rather just curl up in my recliner with a bunch of blankets and books and sit.  It didn't help that back in December I accidentally washed and dried my fitbit and haven't been tracking my steps.  So today I was out at Target and decided to buy myself a new fitbit.  Instead of the little clip on kind I upgraded to a Flex (not the big one that has been giving people rashes but the smaller one) and it is PINK.

So hopefully having this back on me again will get me walking and getting my 10,000 steps each day which is a great way to start getting myself out of hibernation.